Posts Tagged ‘reviewlet’

[reviewlet rewind] <em>She Got Up Off the Couch</em>, by Haven Kimmel

[reviewlet rewind] She Got Up Off the Couch, by Haven Kimmel

Reviewlets give FWR contributors the chance to recommend books of all genres that other fiction writers might enjoy. Reviewlet Rewinds like this one highlight books published more than two years ago, and Reviewlet Classics refer to books published more than twenty years ago.

At first I was not so sure about She Got Up Off the [...]

[reviewlet rewind] <em>A Girl Named Zippy</em>, by Haven Kimmel

[reviewlet rewind] A Girl Named Zippy, by Haven Kimmel

Reviewlets give FWR contributors the chance to recommend books of all genres that other fiction writers might enjoy. Reviewlet Rewinds (like this one) highlight books published more than two years ago, and Reviewlet Classics refer to books published more than twenty years ago.

You know that moment in life when you realize that stories of the [...]

recommended read: <em>Fish Bones</em> by Gillian Sze

recommended read: Fish Bones by Gillian Sze

In the interest of full disclosure, I must admit that I love Gillian Sze. Not in a “we’re romantically involved” kind of way, but yes, we were classmates at Concordia University for our undergraduate degrees in Creative Writing, and from the first moment I read her work, I knew she was a great writer. So [...]

reviewlet: <i>How Far is the Ocean from Here</i> by Amy Shearn

reviewlet: How Far is the Ocean from Here by Amy Shearn

How Far is the Ocean from Here, Amy Shearn’s captivating debut, follows a young surrogate mother who flees to the desert shortly before her due date.
Accomplishing a seemingly impossible goal, the novel sustains the quality and language of a short story for 320 pages. Shearn exceeds at painting characters and relationships – particularly the [...]

Reviewlet: <i>The View from the Seventh Layer</i> by Kevin Brockmeier

Reviewlet: The View from the Seventh Layer by Kevin Brockmeier

Once there was a city where everyone had the gift of song.
Once there was a city where people did not look one another in the eye.
Once there was a man who happened to buy God’s overcoat.
The View from the Seventh Layer is a rich, ethereal collection: here are fables, ghost stories, romances (among them a [...]

Reviewlet: <i>Instant Love</i> by Jami Attenberg

Reviewlet: Instant Love by Jami Attenberg

At the FGIBI party, I had the chance to meet Jami Attenberg, whose novel-in-stories Instant Love I recently read and admired.
Instant Love follows an ensemble of vivid characters whose lives intersect as they stumble upon, after, or away from romance. Whether the passion in question is fleeting or fundamental, each story sharpens to a fine [...]

Reviewlet: <i>Away</i> by Amy Bloom

Reviewlet: Away by Amy Bloom

This beautiful novel by one of my favorite short-story writers follows the adventures of 22-year-old Lillian Leyb, a recent survivor of a Russian pogrom, from New York’s Lower East Side to Seattle to the remotest parts of Alaska, where she hopes to get a boat to Siberia. (The story is set in the 1920s.) After [...]